I have been asked to write a script that will 'preferably' run from an OSX server that will gather the information from 'system profiler' on a bunch of macs on a network.
I have tentatively told my boss that this is possible on the grounds that:
1. It's BSD based, so scripting should be quite powerful, and;
2. I thought someone else was going to have to implement it.

The easiest and cheapest way to do this with a lot more functionality is Apple Remote Desktop. It gets all of the information from System Profiler as well as allowing remote graphical access (I know you can also easily do remote desktop through VNC - I do it at home to manage my daughters Macs) and remote installation of software, updates, etc.

For a UK price of GBP349 (don't have that funny shape in Australia ) that allows unlimited client management it is very cheap.

A-Wing wrote:Isn't ARD just a glorified VNC? Which you can get for free

As I said above, you can do it through VNC and manage each Mac individually, but ARD is VNC on steroids. You use it to manage multiple Macs at the same time, download scripts to multiple Macs, query multiple Macs for hardware and software installed, install software to multiple Macs and more. If you are manging a networked Mac environment it is brilliant in allowing remote troubleshooting and management.